How can you Defend Pope Gregory XI from John Wycliffe?

Answer 1

If Pope Gregory XI has truth on his side he needs no defense from Wycliffe. The problem is that what is at the heart of the whole issue for many is the question of whether or not the scripture is the whole and sufficient basis for the Christian faith or whether Christians need traditions of the church, which have, in the end been created by men. So, people will be discussing the matter from a different base assumption and so be talking at cross purposes.

If Pope Gregory XI and the tradition he was defending was indeed defensible, then he also would have nothing to fear from people having free access to the truth of the word of God in their own language. In fact, if he wanted them to have the truth then he would be promoting the spread of the word of God, as indeed did a number of well known Catholic missionaries in the centuries before him.

In fact, this would also have helped his cause since the clear truth would have refuted the ideas of Wycliffe if they were indeed false. The fact that he took the position he did, against the word of God, and against the spread of its eternal light, indicates his position fairly clearly.